Is an interior, non-bearing wall whose top plate is nailed into the floor joists above and whose base plate is fastened to the concrete foundation with concrete nails considered a braced wall line?

The wall is in a basement with concrete foundation walls and intersects with other walls that are also fastened top and bottom.

I had gotten the impression that a non-braced wall line was a wall where there is no bracing preventing a lateral collapse of the studs, but it seems like in this situation, it is braced by the top and bottom plate being fastened into place, even though there is no sheathing to provide additional bracing. I ask cause the IRC mentions stud spacings for braced vs non braced wall lines and I'm wondering if stud gaps > 16" OC are allowed in basement nonbearing interior walls that don't have any extra bracing other than the top plate and bottom plate fastening. I'm using 16" OC, but there are a couple places where I have a 20" gap because of window and door king stud locations.

Thanks!

CopperClad

07-25-2012 03:05 PM

Every wall whether bearing or non-bearing gets secured at the bottom and the top. If you are framing non-bearing walls in a basement then you do not need to be worried about any structural bracing. Only time you need to worry about bracing a non-bearing wall in a basement is if you have multiple HVAC ducts, pipes, or anything that is preventing you from nailing a full length stud from top plate to bottom plate. If you have a window over your 16'' layout then you need to provide a sill plate at the bottom of the window opening and install a cripple stud from the sill to the bottom plate. And if by bracing you are meaning blocking, then you only need to be putting the blocking in walls that are greater then 8'.